The Journey
by The Mustachioed Cat
Summary: The Fading, Resurgence, and Permeance, condensed. COMPLETE.
1. Default Chapter

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Author's Notes:

These works were consolidated to one in order to demonstrate their continuity. The Author has forsaken all of his previous reviews, as FF.net services do not allow such things to be transferred.

Added commentary at the bottom, to clarify some points in this work that might confuse or be lost on people.

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The Fading  
  
         On Opassa beach, three ghostly children turned their heads to the sky. A rumble, an explosion, and a great black hole filled the sky, small yellow etheric trails seeping out, searching... There is a sensation of motion, and for one fantastic moment it seemed as though the entire planet is moving at an insane speed, upwards, downwards, left and right.  
         The ghost in the white dress huddled against the ghost with the red hair. "Is this the end?" She whispered, half to him, half to herself.   
"No..." The other ghost was coming up behind them, setting her glasses more firmly against her face.  
         "It's the beginning... all over again."  
         And then that planet collided with another, one remarkably similar. They both were torn apart. Flesh, bone, earth, sky... all became something much less, something primitive. The ghostly children watched this, floating on etheric waves.  
         The mass that had once been two worlds, of two universes, began to shrink. It's surface rippled violently, and as it shrank, the etheric streamers that had come from the hole in the sky began to curl around it. Soon there was only a yellow sun, so dense was the ether... and then in one eternal moment, everything exploded.  
         Two worlds became one. Continents shifted, alliances changed, people suddenly remembered a great wealth of knowledge that couldn't be theirs. But not one soul left that planet. Some people merged together, in order to allow the most basic principle of time itself to be maintained... but not one person died.  
         Few would remember it... those that did would soon look upon it as a wild dream, a flight of fancy.  
         Fewer still would remember why, that day, everything fell into place exactly as it should have.  
  
         The boy who had been, in that one moment, both alive and dead, awoke on Opassa Beach. He felt the rhythmic beating of the waves, the touch of sand, and the heat of the sun on his face, and rejoiced for reasons he couldn't explain. Then he remembered his dream, an odd shade filled with a face, a foe, and a terrible longing. He concentrated on those images, but they slipped through his fingers like the wisps of dust they were, and took flight into his subconscious, where perhaps one day they might resurface.  
         Defeated, the boy turned to regard the sea again, and found himself facing three ghostly children.   
         They stared at him, and then the one that wore a white dress curtseyed. The one with spikey red hair genuflected, and the purple haired one bowed deeply.  
         "We... thank you." They spoke in unison, and then vanished.  
         It was so far beyond the boy's sphere of knowledge, to comprehend what had happened then. In the end, he would dismiss it as the effects of sitting in the sun for too long. He totally forgot, and in doing so committed a deep and horrible crime.   
         His love, his Kid, who had spent so much of herself to Combine the two worlds, to become the sentience of pure chaotic energy and chance, was forgotten. The time that he shared with her, and all the others that had journeyed with him, was too forgotten, hidden somewhere deep inside himself.  
         A note too, of trivial importance, something he learned while traveling through time and space; a rule that the new Combined world had abided by through Kid's will. A rule that had caused the dead ghosts of Marle, Lucca, and Crono to vanish.  
One may not be in two places at once.

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Clarification:

         After the battle between Serge, Kid, and a variable character, the two universes merge. Kid\Schala takes control of the Combining at great personal loss, to prevent death and\or erasure of elements from either Universe.

         Serge wakes up without memory. The ghostly children vanish because 'one cannot be in two places at once'. Meaning that Crono, Marle, and Lucca have been brought back to life.

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	2. Resurgence

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Author's Notes:

Resurrection without Rebirth

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Resurgence  
  
re·sur·gence (r-sûrjns)  
n.   
1) A continuing after interruption; a renewal.   
2) A restoration to use, acceptance, activity, or vigor; a revival  
  
  
         From the darkness between moments, a consciousness stirred. For so long without form, without thought, the spirit lay diffused and emacerate in the ether. For years, it laid as such, flickering in and out of sentience just enough to retain sanity. For years, it dreamed.  
         Such dreams of the damned are impossible to describe. Those without bodies find it hard to distinguish the animate from the inanimate, emotion and color, time and space. The spirit was warmed from within by memories of something, or someone. It's yearning alone gave it the strength to brave the agony of nothingness.   
         ...and then one day, the spirit discovered a crack in it's prison. A shaft of light, cutting through the darkness like a scythe. Perhaps it had always been there, and the spirit could only then perceive it, or perhaps the spirit had stumbled upon it by chance. It didn't matter.  
The spirit surged towards the light, and past, present, and a glimpse of fate greeted it... greeted Her.  
         Kid erupted into Time violently, her rebirth sending ripples through the very fabric of reality. For one insane moment she was omniscient... she drew every breath, felt every touch, and reveled and cried all at the same time.   
         But her inner light, the warmth that had helped her survive the darkness, was there still. Through it, Kid was able to fix herself to one spot, to one mind, to one body.  
  
         The first thing she felt was rain. Kid opened her eyes, and stared into a black, angry sky. She was dressed in her scarlet garb, which afforded little protection to the cold that now invaded her senses.   
She got up slowly, her brain slowly remembering how to move her body. She looked around, and found herself on a cape, overlooking a violent ocean. There was a small hut a few yards away, with just enough shelter for her small form. She got to her feet unsteadily as lightning split through the sky, and almost stumbled. Catching herself, she walked haltingly to the hut, and fell into the small area of protection it afforded.   
          There, she slept.  
         When she awoke, the rain had stopped, but the black sky remained. The wind howled over Kid's form, and she shivered violently. Kid had taught herself to ignore such things once, long ago... but that had been stripped away from her, along with everything else that had been... superficial. In the end, the only things left for her were love and hatred, the two extremes. The one she loved, and those that she hated. There were other things too sometimes, memories and flashes of impossible places, and colorful people... but nothing stayed with her, it was as a waking dream.   
          Serge... she had to find him, had to tell him how she felt. Had he even realized her feelings? Yes... but did he know how deeply they ran, how vulnerable she had been around him? She hated weakness, and therein hated herself.   
         Love was a crutch, a crutch she shouldn't have needed. She was a Radical Dreamer, a thief. She had to be perfectly set ethically and morally in order to succeed in her trade... but she had fallen, it had seemed.  
         Kid stood and walked to the edge of the ledge. Did he remember her? She had made the world change, she remembered it dimly... and she was also under the impression that a great deal of time had passed. Had he married, had children of his own?  
         The ocean below her churned, gray waters exploding violently against the rock face. The wind howled. Something clicked in Kid's mind, and she turned slowly around, taking in the cape's surroundings. The cape. The Howling Cape... where she had first met Serge.   
Her gaze fell upon the hut, and her heart froze. It wasn't a hut, it was a shrine.   
         She lurched over to it, fearing what she would find there.   
          Under the roof was a mound, the same mound Kid had slept against. Inset on a larger stone read:  
  


_Here lies Serge,  
He that lived life as if in a dream,  
He that buried his mother, wife, and child before him,  
The grand poet that penned the fiction "Radical Dreamers",  
To him this pyre is erect,  
He that spent his life waiting for something he never knew  
_  
          Something inside Kid died. She turned, suddenly erect, with perfect form. She would have liked to have died next to him, if not while living, then perhaps to let the wind and chill take her next to his grave... but she had failed him, and the part of her that had lived off his affection died.   
         She jumped off the cape, into the angry gray sea.  
  
But this is not an end.

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This was written about 2 months before Permeance.

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	3. Permeance

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Something I've never seen done before, but damn well should be. Reincarnation, modern setting. 

Note: I haven't read everything in archive.

Characters names stayed the same for sake of length. Getting the point across as to who is who would take more exposition then I want.

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Permeance 

Day One

_"Who are you?"_

_"The thing you've been looking for._

_"Who are you?"_

_"The thing you desire without knowing."_

_"Who are you?" _

_"Your other half."_

When Serge woke, he remembered the dream, or thought he did. He stared at the ceiling for a while, and tried to place the voice that had spoken to him. He reached over and touched Harle, the one he thought to be his other half. In response, she turned towards him and pressed closer to him. The warmth he felt for her was nearly overpowering. 

It was still early, neither had classes until later in the day. Serge put an arm around Harle and drifted back to sleep.

Day Two

_"Who are you?"_

_"The one whose heart bleeds."_

_"Who are you?" _

_"The one who thirsts for combat."_

_"Who are you?"_

_"One who has recreated herself from nothingness."_

When Serge woke, Harle was looking into his eyes. "What are you thinking, luv?" She asked him. He recalled the words, spoken to him by the unseen (woman?), and could only smile. "Of you." He murmured.

Harle drew him closer, into a kiss. The dream faded away...

Day Ten

_"Who are you?"_

_There was no reply._

_"Who are you?"_

_The nothingness gave no reply._

_"Who are you?"_

_...in the distance, there was a muffled sob._

When Serge awoke, Harle was gone. It was late in the day, but Serge had no classes. He felt Harle's side and found it cold, remembering that she had had to attend a class on Dragonian Relics earlier that day. He stretched, and got out of bed. 

The four-room apartment was cluttered as usual. Comic serials, food wrappers, boxes yet unpacked from when Harle moved in, dirty clothes, and music disk cases were gathered at the base of the walls as if they had grown there, rather then been constantly kicked out of the way. Serge liked this place, it made him feel comfortable. And this was the place where Harle was. 

There was movement, just outside his range of vision. He whirled, and nothing was there. Shaking his head, he went to the bathroom and showered. While in the shower, he thought he saw a shadow through the curtain, but when he pulled it back, no one was there. He set the water on its hottest setting.

After drying off and dressing, Serge left the apartment quickly. Harle would be leaving the Dragonian class building soon, he could catch her there and they could go out to eat.

The door closed, and the apartment was silent. On a small table in what passed for the 'living room', there was a framed picture of Serge and Harle standing together, a park in the background. The glass frame cracked.

Day Twenty

_"Who are you?"_

_The sound of crying is overwhelming._

_"Who are you?"_

_"One who loved you... and loves you still." The voice sobbed out._

_"Who are you?"_

_"I am the one who came back from the nothingness I had cast myself to... I came back for you."_

When Serge awoke, the apartment was dark. He was suddenly cold, and could see his breath in the icy air. Instinctively he reached over, but Harle was not there. Her indentation was not warm. He got up, heart gripped by anxiety. The dream slipped into the back of his mind. He searched the whole apartment, but could find no trace of her.

Serge quickly dressed, and tried to leave, but found he couldn't. The door was frozen to it's frame, frost crusting around the frame. Not daunted, he went to the bedroom closet and removed his swallow, tarnished in disuse. He was so totally focused on finding Harle, he didn't even stop to think of the repercussions of destroying his own door. 

He became familiar with the swallow's weight again, took a few practice strikes, and then split the door right down the middle. Kicking the two pieces in half, he was hit by a gust of warm wind. The apartment building was open-air, and he could smell the sea on this breeze. He stepped outside, and his body shuddered from the temperature change. 

Serge searched for Harle all night, and most of the morning. She was nowhere to be found.

Day Twenty-One

Serge lay in bed. He didn't dream. He didn't think. His face had the complexion of a corpse. He lay in the middle of the bed, hand out, as if trying to straddle the gap between himself and Harle... wherever she was. He had cried, and he couldn't anymore.

_"Who are you?" A half conscious thought, murmured by near comatose Serge._

_"I am the one who has stood by you, for the longest time."_

_"Who am I?"_

_"You are one whose soul shines like a jewel in the darkness. You are one who branches dimensions, fights with all his heart, and loves, and is loved."_

_"I am not that person..."_

_"You are. The potential in you yet untapped is unequaled in the world. You are here for a reason... as am I."_

_"Harle? Where are you?"_

_"She has left you."_

Those words tightened the vise around Serge's heart. He rolled onto his size, and curled into a fetal position. Every part of his body was sore. He couldn't do anything; his lungs wouldn't fill with air. The unnatural cold had been gone when he had returned from his searching, now it wafted over him again. 

"P-please... Harle..." The tears Serge thought couldn't come did. "Don't... leave me behind..."

Day Twenty-Two

The phone sat ruined, neatly sliced in two. Serge's swallow was still embedded in the floor between the two pieces. They had called. His parents, his teachers, his landlord, his old girlfriend. They all had not idea about his situation. Leena had called him three times straight, and finally the ringing had got so odious that Serge had simply destroyed the phone. His parents were worried, his teachers were upset, and his landlord had given him one-weeks eviction notice.

Serge was no longer human. He had left behind all high-level brain functions in favor of the sweet nectar of mental oblivion. Mostly he sat in front of the television, letting himself become a thousand different people, but never himself. He ate little, drank little, and didn't bathe. 

This continued, for three days.

Day Twenty-Six

Serge was lying down in the thick carpet of the living room, his eyes glazed over. The television crackled static. A light breeze began to circulate through the room, slowly centering it's revolutions over Serge's 'sleeping' form. 

_"Who are you?" The words came easily, without thought._

_"I am the one who wants nothing more then to comfort you."_

_"Why do you speak to me?"_

_"Because it gives me strength."_

_"Why are you here?"_

_"Because I love you."_

_"...love is dead."_

_For a long time, there was no response from the blackness._

Then… 

_"…No."_

Serge was brought out of his deathly slumber by warmth across his backside. Two slender arms reached around and encircled his waist. It wasn't Harle, he could tell that much. He didn't care. He closed his eyes. Time passed.

When he opened his eyes, everything was real again. He was in bed, facing the wall. He slowly turned over, and found himself face to face with a beautiful girl. 

Her hair was long and blonde, her face perfectly shaped. A name that carried with it a cold feeling, as though it had bubbled from some deep, primitive part of his brain, came to him. "Kid..." he murmured softly. She opened her eyes, which were vibrant, sky blue. She smiled, and her eyes brimmed with tears. "I finally found ya, mate." she choked out.


End file.
